Just read this article that sums everything up at Rovers perfectly from people who know what they're talking about and aren't easily manipulated like a lot of people in the media.

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Ordinarily, the sacking of a football manager after just 57 days in charge might come as something of a surprise. But nothing that Blackburn Rovers do is surprising anymore. In the two years and one month that the Venky's Group have been blindly slapping buttons and yanking levers in the boardroom, they have transformed a respected football club into a laughingstock. From the safety of the Premier League, Blackburn now find themselves falling to the bottom of the Championship like a brick tossed down a well.

Like Steve Kean before him, the tragedy of Henning Berg is not that he was sacked but that he was ever appointed in the first place. Kean bore the brunt of the fans' anger -- rightly so, given that he took their club down -- but why was a rookie coach installed in place of an experienced and proven manager? Berg won just a single game in his 10-match spell, but why was a man with such a modest track record appointed to such a challenging role in the first place? Was he given the job purely because he had once played for Blackburn?

And what of the man who makes these decisions, global adviser Shebby Singh? For the reported 400,000 pounds he earns every year, what is he bringing to the table? He's a Malaysian footballer turned controversial TV pundit; what does he know of the battle-scarred quagmire that is the second flight?

Ultimately, Blackburn's fans deserve better than this. The supporters aren't stupid despite the best attempts of some to paint them that way. They knew that even under normal circumstances, it was highly unlikely that Rovers would ever return to the top of the table. The days when Jack Walker’s money was enough to help them challenge the likes of Manchester United are long gone.

They also knew that being located too close to Manchester and Merseyside to enjoy widespread support in the region, Blackburn would always have to work hard to sustain themselves in the top flight. But with sensible senior management from John Williams and team management from Sam Allardyce, that’s exactly what they were doing. There were bargain signings, progression from the youth teams and tactics that maximised their resources.

And then everything was thrown away in a ludicrous and hopeless lunge for the big time. Did they think Allardyce had constructed a prosaic, functional team for fun or because that was the best way to survive? They know now.

Oddly, it was the supporters who were pilloried for their reaction to last season's inevitable relegation. When they had the temerity to protest against a manager out of his depth and owners that appeared to have all the football knowledge of a 10-year-old boy who had just played "FIFA 2011" for the first time, they were dragged through the mud. "How can they boo their own manager? Don't they realise that it's not helpful to attack their own club?" asked the pundits.

What those experts failed to grasp was that Blackburn Rovers had ceased to be "their own club" when Venky's first arrived. The fans knew exactly what was happening. They knew that their future had been squandered by feckless know-nothings. They knew they were going down and were paying through the nose for the privilege of watching it firsthand. And they were expected to paint their faces, dance a jig and blow kisses to the owners while it all went up in smoke in front of their eyes? They had every right to jeer.

Blackburn Rovers are no longer a functioning football club. They're twisted wreckage on the side of the road, something for us to slow down and peer at before accelerating away and thanking God it wasn't us. Who would now slip their tracksuited bottom into Berg's vacated seat? Who would work for the Venky's Group knowing that, along with common sense, wisdom and know-how, there is now a marked absence of patience, too?

Cynics might remark that football is nothing more than a business, but Blackburn Rovers weren't formed in 1875 to maximise commercial revenues in the sub-continent or to secure generous TV rights. They weren't established to be a plaything for naive chicken merchants in search of adulation. They were created to represent the people of Blackburn. On that basis, they are no longer fit for purpose.

If Venky's had any sense, they would hand the club over and walk away. But you fear that far from this being a nadir, Blackburn's descent has only just begun.

Delighted to see Hull doing so well this season, in 2'nd place after beating Dirty Leeds and now 2 points behind Cardiff (played a game more mind), dropping down a division has seemed to have done Steve Bruce a world of good and just watching his interviews on local telly he looks far more relaxed than he ever did at Sunderland

Was listening to 606 on 5 Live earlier where they had Blackburn's "Global Adviser" Shebby Singh on the show I'll list some pointers for people who are interested but he was difficult to understand his broken English at times and he wasn't exactly direct with his answers

Quote:

When asked about his role at Blackburn part of his answer was "Fighting enemies from outside and inside the club"

Shebby also admitted that he made the final decision to hire Henning Berg

Shebby claimed to have watched Blackburn for many many years but has always struggled to identify the style of play and says that Blackburn need an "Identity"

Shebby claimed that 10 games is a "lifetime" to decide whether or not a manager is right for the job or not.

When asked about Judan Ali: Shebby says that Judan was there just to observe the team and he's a guest of the club and made out that people speculating that Judan would be involved in any form of coaching are dumb

Shebby then said anybody who thinks that he took training yesterday are "Stupid"

Shebby then said the 1'st half of 2012 was Brilliant when answering how long it would take to get a new manager in....

When asked how he was by a fan who called the show he said he was happy because he got 6 points today because Blackburn and Tottenham had won

Nige, how does any of that answer my two questions? Obviously you can't because I made two excellent points and you will look silly disagreeing with either of them. I see that you won yesterday without Berg in charge, that's as many times as he managed in ten games. I really don't think that Kean left behind as big a mess as you like to portray. A good manager will sort you out. It’s up to Venkys to bring somebody good in; you can’t blame Kean for Berg’s failings.

Also, that article is massively hypocritical:

Quote:

Like Steve Kean before him, the tragedy of Henning Berg is not that he was sacked but that he was ever appointed in the first place. Kean bore the brunt of the fans' anger -- rightly so, given that he took their club down -- but why was a rookie coach installed in place of an experienced and proven manager? Berg won just a single game in his 10-match spell, but why was a man with such a modest track record appointed to such a challenging role in the first place? Was he given the job purely because he had once played for Blackburn?

So Berg takes no responsibility and receives little anger for performing far worse than his predecessor because he's a rookie manager, yet Kean is lambasted for exactly the same thing? Lol. The article lost all credibility after that. Why is one manager abused for being wrongly appointed while the other isn't? Regardless of that, nether should be targeted during games; ALL of the hatred should be aimed towards Venkys. The buck stops with them.

Also:

Quote:

Oddly, it was the supporters who were pilloried for their reaction to last season's inevitable relegation. When they had the temerity to protest against a manager out of his depth and owners that appeared to have all the football knowledge of a 10-year-old boy who had just played "FIFA 2011" for the first time, they were dragged through the mud. "How can they boo their own manager? Don't they realise that it's not helpful to attack their own club?" asked the pundits.

What those experts failed to grasp was that Blackburn Rovers had ceased to be "their own club" when Venky's first arrived. The fans knew exactly what was happening. They knew that their future had been squandered by feckless know-nothings. They knew they were going down and were paying through the nose for the privilege of watching it firsthand. And they were expected to paint their faces, dance a jig and blow kisses to the owners while it all went up in smoke in front of their eyes? They had every right to jeer.

So it's justifiable to boo the manager because the owners are runing the club, what kind of logic is that? Venkys hired an unqualified manager who wasn't up to the job, so they should have been booed, not the guy whose removal wasn't going to fix the real problems at the club. Terrible article that completely lacks sense.

You're also being rather patronising seeing as Norwich fans have already been through all of this with the 'Chase out' era in the nineties. You act as if this has never happened in football before! We managed to get Chase out in a similar scenario by targeting him, and only him. Did we target any of the failing managers including Gary Megson (awful) during that time? No, because we saw the bigger picture. The fact that your lot only now understand that your problems lie beyond the underperforming managers (something that clueless outsiders have realised for some time) and that you were misguided in targeting Kean (which achieved the best part of nothing) proves that Blackburn fans were rightfully viewed as a joke by the media and other football fans. You were right to be angry, but your direction was aimless and pointless. I still empathise with your club’s supporters despite this. Nobody should have to suffer the same fate as we did nearly two decades ago; going from a top half club challenging for Europe to a ‘money making’ asset that was stripped of all its value and ended up in the second tier for a long time.

EDIT- Why has this stretched the page so much? FFS!

Last edited by Seabs; 12-30-2012 at 09:35 AM.
Reason: AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

Interesting article from Tim Vickery on Pato's situation. He says Pato's move move is down "Brazilian school of physical preparation" -----------and that he'll be working with physical trainer called Fabio Mahseredjian at Corinthians.

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The idea for this piece came when a member of Pato's enourage -without allowing himself to be named - said that one of the mian reasons for the return was the extra quaity of Brazil's physiotherapists. The much vaunted Milanello facilities don't seem to have worked with Pato. Couldn't be too specific on methods in the piece because of the battle against the word count.

From the 2002 paulo Paixao interview "we think that the planning in Europe is wrong. They do their physical preparation work pre-season and then that's it for the year. So they don't take advantage of the fact that they have fewer games than in Brazilian football.
"The number of playrs out injured is very high. They don't seem to mind. If one player is injured they go out and buy another."

"if you ask European clubs for a player's physical record they don't give you anything. They have no record of tests carried out. Any club in Brazil can give you this information. Without carrying out tests you can't draw up a work programme, and In Europe they hardly seem to do any. In Brazil all the big clubs have physiology labs...".

paulo paixao (2002)
"our players are dealt with in a laboratory situation. The player continuously goes through a battery of tests to find out what he needs to fulfil his athletic potential. We focus on the specifics that a player requires, be it muscular eenforcement, stamina or aerobic work, or addressing muscular imbalance. You don't see this kind of work carried out in Europe.